To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?
Get Well Soon
Get Well Soon is a plain-looking artwork composed of text drawn from 200,000 comments on GoFundMe campaigns and a little more. The comments range from commonplace sentiments to oddly specific tributes. The mix of messages bears out complex associations that Sam Lavigne and Tega Brain have said allude to the brokenness of a health-care system that, in better shape, would preclude the existence of such fundraising initiatives and the emotions that accompany them. In a year when millions struggled to make ends meet while facing medical emergencies of all kinds, Get Well Soon hit home.
Struggle: From the History of the American People
During the last days of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition of Jacob Lawrence’s 1954–56 painting series “Struggle: From the History of the American People” this fall, a remarkable rediscovery occurred in New York. A panel that had long been missing from the group of works was found in an apartment on the city’s Upper West Side.
Man with a Camera
In the hours following its triumph over Donald Trump in the Presidential election last month, the Biden-Harris campaign team released a video thanking voters and calling for unity in the days ahead. The video features shots of Americans from different backgrounds posing behind empty picture frames—a direct reference to one of the most seminal pieces in performance art history, Lorraine O’Grady’s 1983 Performance Art